Shapes
by caffeineaddict13
Summary: Most people would like to be a circle. It’s nice to have something constant in your life. Jacob/Bella/Edward.


**A/N:** Just because.

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It takes her a while to realize that the same shapes don't necessarily fit together.

i. Circle

Bella Swan. Plain and round (like the heart of her face, the way her eyes are when she's scared, her mouth when she hears about vampires), easy and Always The Same.

A circle is a circle no matter how big, not like the triangles or polygons she sees in her geometry notebook day after day. Circles don't change (Bella doesn't _change_), and as many times as she does Pi times Radius squared, her stupid shape never changes.

Circles don't have end points, and Bella never seems to die. Circles can be cut in half just as easily as the rest of the shapes, but Bella is human (_for now_, in the back of her head as he presses his glinting teeth to her neck), and she can't help but want to live forever.

Most people would like to be a circle. It's nice to have something constant in your life.

(Bella's frown matches the crescent on her palm, and she can't help but think that circles are only circles when they're not being broken. So what shape is she?)

ii. Square

Edward Cullen. Every inch of Edward is full fledged perfection—there is not a part of him that doesn't equal the rest. Add his golden eyes to his bronze hair to his pale skin and most people get side by side (he gets jagged edges, but that's another equation entirely).

Cut him in half and simply get two sides of an equal—his heart doesn't beat but that doesn't mean he can't feel. Perimeters were never measured by love, anyway.

(Areas are measured by life. Edward guesses that's why he always adds up to a negative number)

Bella only sees the four-sided part of him, while Edward takes in the edges and the outside lines. It's hard to add up numbers when you can't count the ones that don't exist (in his heart, he holds most of hers, anyway. There are certain things that she will never know). A century is a lot of years, but his angles didn't change till he met her.

It's funny the way love works. Edward knows there is no reason, but he can't help but wonder about the shape of his heart.

iii. Triangle

Jacob Black. Jacob's grin is wide and obtuse, and if you were to count his angles you'd probably find more than you expected on a sixteen-year-old boy.

There's the sharp jut of his collarbone and the point of his ears when he's phased (that doesn't count; wolf-Jacob, not in the same way his human form does); there's the contours of his sinewy muscles and the strong lines of his legs when he runs. Jacob's fingers all form a perfect V (nine in all, if you count the one that slips underneath his jeans—brown eyes following the russet marks—when Bella thinks he's not looking), and each twist of his dark locks make another measure in the bunch.

Triangles come in all different shapes and sizes, the same way that Jacob has different facets of himself. Kid Jacob; acute angles that stretch over long lengths because so much is in his grasp; Broken Jacob, ninety-degrees of straight-edged pretend (_please please please_); Sam's Jacob, strong and equilateral with a pack-mind on one thing.

Triangles make more triangles (circles just make shattered edges). Jacob closes his eyes and counts the sides that always seem to be disappearing.

iv. Addition

It's easy to see that a circle can fit inside of many things. That's one purpose Bella has: she makes up the parts of a whole. Bella isn't really Bella unless she's fitting in somewhere, the same way a circle isn't a line if it doesn't end.

(The problem is that there's too much to fit in to. She needs help)

Bella likes squares because they're easy and constant: four lines, four angles, four corners, two hearts. It's easy to fit inside because he opens it up for her (it's not right because she was never meant to fit).

Triangles are angular and beautiful. Triangles can pin together uneven numbers of lines (her broken heart, him leaving, the shape of death and the dark of his eyes), and circles touch all the edges inside.

It's not really her fault that she infuses so easily into his life. It's just the way she was made.

(It is her fault how badly she hurts him. That's a decision to change her shape)

v. Subtraction

Bella doesn't realize that circles can stand on their own. It's hard when she's rolling around in this town she still doesn't know and she doesn't have any edges to stand on.

Bella hates the fact that she can be so weak (_save me save me save me_). She never read about a damsel in distress in her math textbook, and there was no Prince Charming who hid between the theorems she had to memorize for class.

A circle minus a square was still a circle, just no longer a square (how does Bella subtract when she doesn't even know how to count?). Cut them in half and they're all in pieces.

(Funny how when she cuts away the triangle, it's still there in the bits she leaves behind. Jacob was always stronger than her, anyway)

vi.

Bella likes things neat. It should bother her that she doesn't have any angles, but she steals them between motorcycle rides for fun.

(Jacob's growing softer every day. It hurts)

In the end, they're all lines. It's just harder to choose when she sees that everyone's the same.

Instead, she packs up all three and shoves them into something she can't recognize. It's haphazard and ugly, and everyone's hurting, but at least she has something to stand on.

Circles aren't the most generous of shapes.

(Bella locks away her math book and pretends she doesn't care about broken hearts)

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**END**


End file.
